BRATISLAVA, May 6, (WEBNOVINY) — The request of special prosecutor to strip SNS deputy Igor Stefanov of his immunity from prosecution has been a politicized issue from the start. “Pressure exerted by politicians will continue. The whole issue is coated with fabrications, half-truths and lies. It is yet to be seen how the Prosecution General’s Office will look at the issue in the future,” Stefanov told SITA news agency on Friday.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office could submit to the parliament a proposal to strip SNS deputy Igor Stefanov of deputy immunity. These words came from Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic in reaction to the verdict of the Prosecutor General’s Office to not ask MPs to lift Stefanov’s immunity for now. The minister is convinced that the Special Prosecutor’s Office will do so within a few days after it gets the given file back. “The case has not ended, we continue fighting,” he added.
According to the minister, the verdict is politically motivated and aims at protecting those privileged that breach laws. “The times when Mr. Stefanov and the like had thought they could do anything and nothing would happen to them are over,” Lipsic declared. He believes that it is arguable whether the Prosecutor General’s Office is authorized to submit to the parliament a request to lift the immunity in this case.
The General Prosecutor’s Office has announced it has not yet at this point requested parliament to lift Stefanov’s immunity. Acting Prosecutor General Ladislav Tichy on Friday returned the investigation file regarding the so-called bulletin-board tender to the Office of Special Prosecutor. “Thus far, not all facts that would justify for him to submit a request for approving criminal prosecution of deputy Igor S. to Parliament have been confirmed,” spokeswoman for the prosecutor general Jana Tokolyova told SITA news agency.
At the beginning of March, police investigator asked the prosecution to ask parliament to lift the immunity of opposition SNS MP Igor Stefanov. Stefanov is one of four accused in the case of the so-called bulletin-board tender. The investigator is pressing charges against four of them, including Stefanov’s predecessor Marian Janusek; Stefanov is still protected by his immunity. Stefanov became minister after Marian Janusek, whom the SNS was forced to withdraw under pressure from Prime Minister Robert Fico due to the bulletin-board tender case, which was won by a consortium of two SNS-friendly companies. Later, Fico withdrew Stefanov as well. After Stefanov’s accusation was published, he attacked Interior Minister Lipsic by publishing the „information“ that forty MPs had been wiretapped.
SITA